Mammoth Invitational

Every year I try ski my last day of the season at Mammoth Mountain, in California. While other mountains are shutting down operations for the season, or should be shutting down from poor snow coverage, Mammoth is different. The mountain boasts 100 percent open terrain, cold temps at night, lots of April sun...and it's in California. This makes for a perfect time to host the Mammoth Invitational, a 3-day fundraiser benefiting the Mammoth Lakes Community Fund, which provides funding for educational and athletic programs for the local youth. The participants, mostly from LA, are paired up with a professional skier as a coach, and compete in numerous activities from a biathlon to an alpine ski race to casino night.


The pro alpine race can get rather serious (Dave Chodunsky got me by three hundredths for the overall...damn him), but with about 13 ways to "win" each event, having a good costume can be just as important as having a fast time. As one of the pro coaches, my job is to make sure my group is having a good time, and maybe teach a thing or two about ski technique. This being my third year volunteering at the event, I've worked with groups that wanted to train gates and do one-ski drills during a snow storm, and others that simply wanted someone to go big mountain skiing with.

This year's group, the Go Go Glacier Girls, were definitely into matching outfits and having a good time, but also happened to be some of the best skiers at the event. Armed with some, shall we say, loud team clothing options, we skied all over Mammoth for two days and had a great time at the accompanying events.

I was a little hesitant to wear this costume, and really felt that I could have taken the title without my technicolor fur leggings (the headdress was gone by the time I got to the top of the lift)...

But if this is what the winner's team is wearing to banquet night, then I'm not so sure I lost after all, haha, nice look Dave!

With World Cup victories, Olympic medals, or X Games golds are all represented within the pool of coaches at the event, the opportunity to be included with the amazing group of other athletes and professional ski coaches is humbling. I hope to continue working with the program in the future, and can't think of a better way to spend time giving back to the sport that has provided me with so much. Here's to a wrap on the ski season!

Oh hey Glen Plake, nice bus